The present invention pertains to equipment used in processing photosensitive material, and more particularly, to an autoloader for feeding cassettes and/or pallets containing cassettes to and receiving them from a computed radiography reader.
In computed radiography, a storage phosphor plate/film is typically provided in a light-tight cassette. This storage phosphor film is read by photoelectrically detecting an image formed by scanning the plate with stimulating radiation. An example of such a scanner/reader is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,782 to T. O'Hara. It is desirable to retain the storage phosphor's plate/film within the cassette except during actual processing. It has also been suggested in the prior art to provide an apparatus to automate the presentation on such x-ray cassettes or similar cassette to the reader so that the x-ray cassettes can be processed in succession without the attention of an operator. An example of a suitable device for presenting cassettes is disclosed in copending U.S. application Ser. No. 07/981,640, filed Nov. 25, 1992, entitled "Cassette Autoloader", of John C. Boutet et al.; and U.S. Ser. No. 07/902,214, filed Jun. 22, 1992, entitled "X-Ray Cassette Positioner", of John C. Boutet et al now U.S. Pat. No. 5,278,410. Both of these applications are hereby incorporated by reference. In these applications there is disclosed, a positioner/autoloader for use with a plurality of x-ray cassettes and/or pallets containing cassettes. The apparatus includes first and second cog belts spaced apart so as to provide a plurality of cassette retaining sites, one of which defines a cassette presentation site for presenting cassettes to the reader. The belts are driven such that the cassettes are individually positioned at the presentation site for removal of the photosensitive material therein for reading by the reader after which the photosensitive material is returned to the cassette. The positioner allows a plurality of individual cassettes to be placed on the cassette retaining sites for automatically supplying to the reader individual cassettes in succession, thus freeing the operator to accomplish other duties. It is important that the mechanism be designed to operate in such manner so as to minimize any transfer of vibrations from the autoloader to the reader which can adversely affect the reader reading the information on the photostimulable phosphorous material. In such devices, it is typical that the autoloader will be loaded and/or unloaded during scanning of a photostimulable phosphorous material in the adjacent reader. Often the loading and unloading procedure produces shock vibrations which can be transmitted to the adjacent reader. Since the reader is very sensitive to these vibrations, it is desirable to eliminate or minimize the transmission of these vibrations.
The cassettes are manually loaded and unloaded from the cassette loading and unloading site. Typically, the operator will be loading and/or unloading a plurality of cassettes. During this procedure, the operator must align the sides of the cassette with the horizontally aligned spaced shelves. In order to assist the operator in properly inserting the cassettes into the cassette site, there is provided a pair of guide panels each having identifying indicia for identifying the cassette sites which are located adjacent the cassette loading and unloading site. It has also been suggested that the guide panels be mounted to the autoloader by appropriate vibration insulation mounts as described in copending U.S. application Ser. No. 07/981,640, previously referred to. While guide panels disclosed in this application have provided certain advantages, there exists a problem that the indicia provided on the guide panels will become worn during use. Typically, as cassettes are inserted into and removed from the autoloader, the cassettes will hit the guide panels, thus, producing undesirable shock vibrations and abrading the indicia on the guide panels. While the prior art guide panels have provided improvements in isolating vibration experienced by the autoloader from transferring to the adjacent reader, further improvements in vibration isolation is desirable.
Thus, it is important to provide increased shock absorbency to minimize the possibility of vibration transfer to the reader from the autoloader. It is also important to provide a guide panel which has indicia which is more resistant to wear and abrasion.
Applicants have invented an improved autoloader which provides means for minimizing abrasion to the indicia, provided on the guide panels, thus prolonging the visual effectiveness of the indicia. Means are also provided for further minimizing any potential shock vibrations that may be experienced by the autoloader and transmitted to the reader. In addition, the guide panels are easy to manufacture and install. Means are provided for minimum potential interference of the fastening used to secure the guide panels to the autoloader.